Pests cause millions of human deaths around the world each year. Furthermore, there are more than ten thousand species of pests that cause losses in agriculture. These agricultural losses amount to billions of U.S. dollars each year. Termites cause damage to various structures such as homes. These termite damage losses amount to billions of U.S. dollars each year. As a final note, many stored food pests eat and adulterate stored food. These stored food losses amount to billions of U.S. dollars each year, but more importantly, deprive people of needed food.
Many pesticide compositions have been developed over time to destroy pests and alleviate the damages they cause. These compositions are often applied to the environment in which the insects or other pest live or where their eggs are present, including the air surrounding them, the food they eat, or objects which they contact.
Several of these compositions are vulnerable to chemical and physical degradation when applied to these environments. If these types of degradation occur, the pesticidal activity of the pesticides can be adversely affected, commonly necessitating an increase in the concentration at which the pesticides are applied and/or more frequent applications of the pesticides. As a result, user costs and the cost to consumers can escalate. Therefore, a need exists for new pesticide compositions that exhibit increased stability and enhanced activity compared to existing pesticide compositions when, for example, the pesticide compositions are applied to an environment to control pests.